Contend You Not

[heslopian]

This is a metaphor for someone who has a defense against any argument, no matter how rationale, or logical. Here is an example:

I ask the person why he got a DWI. His response is, "He had pulled through a burger place and got a burger, but as he was trying to eat it, it was so hot he wobbled in his lane, and the cop pulled him over because of this and gave him a DWI." When I suggest that the reason he got a DWI was because he was driving while intoxicated, he refutes that by continuing to say, if the burger was not too hot, he would not have wobbled the car, and the cop would not have given him a DWI. And regardless of how one approaches the question he always has an answer that does not involve being intoxicated while driving. Thus:

"Contend not with those beyond all assail,
With strong walls thick that let no mote inside,"

Let me know if that makes any sense to you, or if it still reads like a garbled mess. Of course if I have to explain it, it is obviously unclear, but that I already knew

Thanks for your time,

Dale

That makes perfect sense, but only now you've explained it. I doubt that I would have got there by myself, no matter how many times I read it. The problem, I think, is "assailing" is too vague a word to make sense in that context. How exactly could the hypothetical people be assailed? Does it mean to get there attention, attack them, gain their services etc.?